Tomic powers on to quarter-finals

Darren Walton, Sydney

BERNARD Tomic has gained sweet revenge over German nemesis Florian Mayer to power into the quarter-finals of the Sydney International.

In his first success in four starts against Mayer, Tomic won 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 in 65 minutes to continue his unbeaten summer and book a date on Thursday with defending champion Jarkko Nieminen.

Mayer had crushed Tomic in straight sets in Australia's Davis Cup world group play-off loss in Hamburg last September, but he was out of his league against the resurgent 20-year-old on Wednesday.

Tomic blasted 14 aces in 10 games and landed 74 per cent of first serves in a dominant display.

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With American top seed John Isner, the world No. 13, crashing out of the event on Wednesday, Tomic is now a warm favourite to claim his maiden tour title in Sydney.

Fellow American Ryan Harrison eliminated a wounded Isner 6-4, 6-4 in their second-round match before Isner revealed he may have to withdraw from next week's Australian Open due to a knee injury.

The 68th-ranked Harrison prevailed in one hour and 11 minutes in a controlled performance against Isner, who had been promoted to top seed after the withdrawals of French pair Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet.

Czech sixth seed Radek Stepanek retired four points into his second-round match against Frenchman Julien Benneteau with a back injury.

Benneteau will face Harrison in Thursday's quarter-finals.

■Flamboyant French wildcard Gael Monfils progressed smoothly into the Auckland Open quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Australian qualifier Greg Jones.

Monfils hit several breathtaking winners, including an outrageous jump shot, in completing the straight-sets win as he continued his comeback from injury.

But while there was plenty of showman in Monfils' performance, he insisted it was all about achieving the desired result.

■In Hobart, Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova is taking little from her demolition of Belarusian Olga Govortsova to reach the quarter-finals of the Hobart International.

Gajdosova breezed past the world No. 57, winning the second-round match 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and eight minutes on Wednesday.

The Slovakian-born 25-year-old played some blistering groundstrokes and served well in windy conditions against Govortsova, who had ousted fifth seed Carla Suarez Navarro in the opening round.

But she says her comeback after several months out of the game last year still has a long way to go.

Asked what she'd like to fix in her game, the world No. 167 didn't hold back.

''Everything,'' she said.

''There are still a lot of things to do better on court - ground strokes, serves, less errors, stay more patient, move better, be tactically better.

''It's a work in progress.''

The Australian former world No. 25 was handed a wildcard into the event she won in 2011.

■In Sydney, Chinese fourth seed Li Na overcame a massive early scare to beat American Madison Keys in the quarter-final of the Sydney International 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.

After looking like she had broken the back of the gutsy American, taking a 5-1 lead in the final set after the drama of a second-set tiebreak, world No. 6 Li Na wobbled again, allowing Keys to peg back a game before prevailing in two-hours-and-20-minute match.